Subversive Jewelry by Justin Giunta

[softgrey]

Subversive launches bridal jewelry

wedding crasher


CFDA Swarovski Award nominee Justin Giunta of Subversive Jewelry (who goes up against Bing Bang's Anna Sheffield and Loeffler Randall's Jessie Randall tonight) is launching a bridal collection, but in his signature fashion he's turned the concept of proper wedding attire—the Tiffany pearls, the tasteful tiara—on its ear. His pearls come in tangled strands entwined with ribbon streamers and his headband is rather more bold than demure. The collection does hit all the traditional bridal requirements, though. "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue—you can fill all your requirements in one piece," says Giunta of his collage-style "Sunken Treasure" necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and brooches. And he hasn't forgotten the grooms: For them, he's devised cufflinks shaped like tiny handcuffs (www.subversivejewelry.com). For more wedding day ideas, see our new Style Notes feature, The Marrying Kind.
—Nicole Phelps


style.com

 

[Scott]

oh i like justin! and that's a gorgeous piece. i don't really get the wedding attribute though,because all of his pieces are pretty elaborate and can be worn that way.

 

[softgrey]

The collection does hit all the traditional bridal requirements, though. "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue—you can fill all your requirements in one piece,

i think this is what makes it bridal specific...

 

[MissMagAddict]

POSSESSED; When in the Netherlands
By David Colman

''ARE WE ROME?'' is a much-talked-about new book, but if Justin Giunta were to write his own treatise about the glory of the United States, he might use a different title.
''Are We Amsterdam?'' isn't as catchy, true, but for Mr. Giunta, the current zeal for luxury goods summons not the Roman Empire but the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, when well-to-do merchants helped create the first truly capitalist country, with a hugely prosperous trade empire.
Mr. Giunta, 28, is not an upstart economic theorist with a book to peddle, but he is a clever observer of 17th- and 21st-century fashions nonetheless.
His line, Subversive Jewelry, often combines styles of different eras, and it has earned him a nomination for emerging accessories designer of the year from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, whose awards ceremony is tomorrow night.
Citing a penchant for things he called ''beautiful, but a little aggressive, with a narrative to tell,'' Mr. Giunta said he has long been fascinated by Dutch Baroque art, which he studied in painting school. He has a special fondness for the still life, particularly those painted by Ambrosius Bosschaert, Pieter Claesz, Jan Davidsz. de Heem and Willem Claesz. Heda.
''These painters were like the Prada or Gucci of their day -- in the hierarchy of painting, they were the brand names,'' Mr. Giunta said.
With religious subjects falling into disfavor, these artists devoted themselves to exquisitely rendered compositions of what might today be called status objects -- exotic seashells, fancy flowers, costly foodstuffs, silver and glass knickknacks and baroque bouquets.
But of all the extravagances that reflected the country's new wealth and glory, Mr. Giunta became most fixated on the bouquets' vases: typically baroque handblown Venetian goblets of sap-green glass. As an art student at Carnegie Mellon University, he lusted after them. He even got in trouble in 2001, when as an intern at the artist Robert Wilson's art and theater center in Water Mill, N.Y., he saw that Mr. Wilson had a collection and decided to drink from one. Mr. Wilson did not appear amused.
A year later, a Dutch friend found and gave Mr. Giunta a goblet of his own. Touched, he vowed not to keep and admire it on a shelf, but to use and love it.
You can guess how that ended.
Even after it shattered, the knowledge that the glasses could still be found fired his obsession anew. When his Subversive Jewelry line took off, he said his first indulgence was to march into ABC Home on Broadway and buy a dozen reproductions -- handblown in the Czech Republic, they cost about $70 each. He uses them every day; his collection grew to almost 30.
''They're surprisingly resilient,'' he said. ''They've been dropped, bounced, kicked.''
Still, six or so of them have eventually felt destiny's final blow -- a few of them in the dishwasher.
''My heart breaks every time,'' he said. ''But using them so outweighs the risk or the loss. Even when they break, they've been paid for in use value alone.''
Their fragility nicely illustrates another Dutch painting tradition: the vanitas, a lovely still life to which the painter added a skull as a reminder that, well, you can't take it with you. Or that it's better to ruin an item of great beauty than to keep it behind glass forever. It's a lesson that all empires -- Roman, Dutch, Prada, Gucci -- have to contend with, sooner or later.

source: nytimes.com (June 3, 2007)

 

[Scott]

nice article! i love justin's work and to read all that enlightens me even more in combination with all of it. he really utilises everything he touches and sees and treasures it.

thanks missmag!

 

[PrincessImp.]

Has anyone attempted to order from the website (www.subversivejewelry.com) before?
If so, how was the customer service?

 

[janyoung99]

belated reply, I know - but I just found this thread. Yes, I've ordered from the website and the service was very good. I had ordered and received some earrings and one of them, to my eye, was flawed. I contacted them via email - they responded immediately and told me to return them and that they would "fix" them to my specifications - which they did - and I received them back very quickly. What's nice is that his things are truly limited, each one made by hand, etc. - small company that when you communicate with them you're talking to someone who is very involved with the entire operation. I bought two pairs of earrings at different times and I LOVE them!

 

[Halcyon]

Gossip on the street is that this guy is going to do a Target collab. like D. Cohen. Has anyone else heard this?

 

[AlexLovesIt]

I'd love to see something at Target...if it looked anything like this.

 

[Scott]

now i would probably buy some of that! though,i doubt anything he would do for target would be as intricate as his signature works but i'm almost certain that his sort of mish-mash antiquity spirit would hover above such a collection.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Source | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette | February 4, 2008

[QUOTE]Multi-faceted: Mt. Lebanon native started as artist, now is a star among N.Y. jewelry designers

NEW YORK -- Die-hard fashionistas can tell you the designer names behind hot fashion houses such as Balenciaga and Dior, but they would be hard-pressed to name the creative directors at Tiffany or Boucheron.

Jewelry occupies a second-class citizenship as accessory in the world of fashion, even though its designers are as talented and creative as those who create apparel. At the same time jewelry has become so bold, beautiful and beguiling that it often makes the clothes appear to be the accessories, the fashion industry has become more intentional about recognizing the often-marginalized genre. For every Zac Posen, they have come to learn, there is a Justin Giunta.

Posen, a young womenswear designer, has taken the U.S. fashion industry by storm over the past five years. And now Giunta, a Mt. Lebanon native and another 20-something designer, is attracting lots of attention with his five-year-old brand Subversive Jewelry.

The designs of Giunta (pronounced JUNE-tah) are so impressive and his potential so promising that he's been named one of seven 2008 winners of the prestigious Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation grants for emerging design talents. He's the first winner in the newly added accessories category and received a $25,000 award to help showcase his collection, which he plans to do toward the end of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.

Giunta, 28, joins a list of past winners who have gained prominence and critical acclaim: Proenza Schouler, Peter Som, Rodarte, Thakoon, Derek Lam, Erin Fetherston and Posen, to name a few.

"Getting into jewelry was sort of a fluke," Giunta said Friday at a breakfast at Barney's in Manhattan to fete him and the other 2008 winners.

Always interested in the arts, he interned at the Mendelsohn Gallery in Shadyside while a student at Mt. Lebanon High School. After high school, he studied at the Pratt Institute in New York City and later transferred to Carnegie Mellon University. During his time there, he studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and won a highly competitive fellowship to study painting and fine art at Yale University.

In 2001, Giunta graduated from Carnegie Mellon with a bachelor's degree in fine arts and moved to New York City to pursue a career as an artist.
"The gallery scene was very difficult to break into," he recalled. "As a young person, it was impossible. I was never formally employed in New York."

So he became an entrepreneur, relying on his artistic and sales skills to support himself. But that September brought the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center, after which he went to Zurich, Switzerland for several months to work in theater costume design. Meanwhile, his paintings were being sold at the Mendelsohn and in Paris.

Upon his return to New York in 2002, Giunta applied for design jobs at numerous companies in the garment industry. When no one would hire him, he began making and selling chandeliers and T-shirts..

In 2003, an event occurred that would change his life.

He made a gem-adorned charm bracelet as a birthday gift for a friend who was a stylist. Word of mouth spread, and soon Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and the New York Times were talking about his striking jewelry. After the Times story, an executive at Barney's saw one of his necklaces and was swept off her feet. His pieces have appeared in numerous fashion week shows, including Yigal Azrouel, Chris Benz, Charlotte Ronson and Patrick Robinson, the new designer for GAP who at the time was designing Perry Ellis womenswear.

"I like collaborating with other designers because it pushes me out of my comfort zone," he said as he sipped a Bloody Mary at a Bryant Park cafe.
Giunta has come a long way since peddling his jewelry from a cart to East Village shop owners in 2003, and from the days when Barney's executives crowded into his kitchen to check out pieces laid on a table. He incorporated in 2004, opened an office near his Chelsea home and sells Subversive pieces in every Barney's store and 110 private boutiques around the world from Dubai to Hong Kong to Dress Circle in Shadyside.

Dress Circle owner Bonnie Levey met Giunta when he was a college student. She said she liked his "funky" jewelry designs, adding that two of his paintings hang in her home.

"I said, 'Justin, one day you're going to support us all.' He proved my prophecy correct. He's a Renaissance man, multitalented. So, of course, when he began Subversive Jewelry there was no doubt I was going to get in there and get it first. I truly believe in his genius. He is not a flash in the pan. And it's not just that he's talented, he knows how to connect with people."

Subversive pieces range in price from $400 to $3,200. Prices are highest for signature items, "super-exotic" jewelry, and embellished gloves and handbags.

"There's always a weight to my jewelry," he said. 'More and more' is my design philosophy. We have a pretty but aggressive aesthetic. Choosing the name was easy. It just alludes to my personality in every way."

Giunta, who hasn't owned a television set in 10 years, allows the dynamism of New York to inspire him. He is unpretentious but confident, and he said his rapid success with jewelry didn't shock him.

"It's never about making a quick buck in exchange for my integrity. It's a blessing to wake up every day and achieve what I wanted as a child."

Mary Alice Stephenson, a contributing fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar and spokesperson for the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation, described Subversive pieces as chic, edgy, affordable, eco-friendly and versatile enough to wear with everything from a red-carpet gown to blue jeans.

"They feel really cool and really now, at a time when a lot of jewelry designers are struggling to find what is fresh."[/quote]

 

[Scott]

gah...mary alice stephenson always speaks like a bleeding air-head. such a lazily,cliched description.

but great article nontheless

thanks missmag!

 

[MissMagAddict]

gah...mary alice stephenson always speaks like a bleeding air-head. such a lazily,cliched description.

but great article nontheless

thanks missmag!

You're welcome Scott

MAS

I'm so pleased for him that he won one of the $25,000 Ecco Domani AwardsI hope he features this new collection separately on his website. Ecco Domani also featured videos of last year's winners on their website & hopefully they will again.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Oh I found something else

source | fabsugar

A Few Words With Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation Winner Justin Giunta of Subversive Jewelry

Where do you get your inspiration from?
Everywhere. I am perpetually inspired by Art History and Contemporary Design.
What's been the biggest challenge for you?
Balancing all the girls who want to be my dates for the Balls! Of course.
Any upcoming collaborations we can look forward to?
Must wait and see. "The best is yet to come"
What's in store for 2008?
A divergence from the norm, lots of embroidered chains and jewels.
What's best the best part of being an Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation winner?
It is truly an honor to be recognized by the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation in the Accessories category. My professional platform has always been to site that accessories are as influential in the industry as clothing. The introduction of this award category is a testament to this, and I am thrilled to have received it.

 

[MissMagAddict]

Source | The New York Times | March 6th

Necklace Ascending a Staircase

This month, Justin Giunta plans to introduce two collections under his jewelry label, Subversive.

On Friday, he will present what he describes as his “couture collection,” made up of one-of-a-kind elaborately constructed compositions, which will be shown on a chorus line of synchronized dancers and sold through his New York studio. On March 23, he will begin selling a less expensive variety of necklaces and bracelets, from $14.99 to $59.99, at Target.

It is one of fashion’s more delicious little ironies when a line called Subversive goes mainstream.

This was perhaps a predictable outcome, as Mr. Giunta’s ornate, intellectual, collagelike designs have been a hit since he began making them on a whim after arriving in New York from Pittsburgh. He had first tried to make a living selling chandeliers, T-shirts, “anything I could to survive in New York City,” he said. When he applied himself to jewelry, by piling pearls, charms, cameos, filigrees and whatnot onto necklaces that looked like beautiful train wrecks, he seemed to strike a chord.

“I was a one-man sweatshop for supplying the demand I had created,” he said.

Although the prices were low when he started (out of necessity), they have gone up over the years along with the preciousness of materials involved and the grandness of scale. His designs now range from $300 to $3,200.

So the opportunity to design for Target, Mr. Giunta said, could be viewed as a return to his original philosophy: “the undermining of an institution, which is jewelry.” In other words, he was an artist making necklaces while questioning the very idea of what a necklace is — kind of like a Duchamp or Magritte for the Vogue mind-set.

Target customers may be satisfied that his designs are still pretty and do not look watered down. A gold-tone cluster of bangles and beads, for example, looks recognizably Subversive, as does a tangle of pearls (actually shell and glass) attached with a fringe of chains to a pocket-watch frame, floating like a squid underwater.

 

[MissMagAddict]

From Justin's New Collection
Debuts Tonight!

source | fashionista

 

[Scott]

^that's quite a folky piece!

i am always so impressed with the amount of craftsmanship that goes into his pieces.

 

[chaneladdict]

I LOve THAT

 

[Deborah]

Wow there is some beautiful jewellery there.

 

[strawberry daiquiri]

New collection

pictures from coutorture.com